One of the reasons WIKIPEDIA is a great resource on the Internet is that it harnesses the collective intelligence of a community. A model that is community-driven has several advantages. Its constituents have different perspectives and backgrounds. It involves people with expertise in different fields. It can be self-policing of its activities. It is easy to scale out. For example, a model of success of community-driven activities may be observed with forums/newsgroups, which have proven to be a resource to get information.
Likewise, while algorithmic search relevance continues to improve, providing a search engine with the context necessary to better target the search can improve the relevance of the results. A search macro can provide this context, specifying a set of modifiers that help narrow the scope of the search. For example, a physician might create a search macro called “andy.health” that restricts a search to a set of high quality medical sites. This search macro is likely to give more relevant results for medical information than a full Internet search.
The approach of a user creating a search macro and sharing it with others for their use is powerful. However, the approach has some shortcomings. First, only the user who owns the search macro can edit it. If another user has a good idea to extend the macro, that user cannot modify the macro without the involvement of the owner. Secondly, if the owner does not have the time to update the search macro regularly, the search macro may become obsolete. New and better websites may become available which the search macro can miss when executed. Thirdly, the search macro incorporates personal biases and preferences of the author. Fourthly, it is not easy to determine which search macro is authoritative and the best for a given category.